People who live in consumer-based societies like the United States often believe that more wealth will lead to fulfillment, but a series of studies from the University of Buffalo earlier this week disputed the idea.

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When people link their self-worth to financial achievement, they're more susceptible to negative psychological results, according to Associate Professor Lora Park.

"People don't think of the possible down sides of wrapping their identity and self-worth around financial pursuits, because our society values wealth as a model of how one should be in the world," explained Park. "It's important to realize these costs because people are gravitating toward this domain as a source of self-esteem without realizing that it has these unintended consequences."

More than 700 people participated in the experiments - 349 college students and a nationally diverse group of 389 subjects. To quantify the results, researchers created the Financial Contingency of Self-Worth scale, a method of measuring the depth of one's reliance on money to enhance self-esteem.

Basing happiness on wealth may cause a person to compare himself to others, feel out-of-control and experience more stress or anxiety over finances, according to the study. The results were clear even after factoring in variables such as financial status, goals and materialistic values.

"We found that people who highly based their self-worth on financial success used more negative emotion-related words, like sadness and anger," said Park. "This demonstrates that just thinking about a financial problem generates a lot of stress and negative emotions for these individuals."

The final experiment found that subjects who based their self-esteem on wealth and were told they'd encounter financial uncertainty in the future became more careful when faced with spending choices. This may happen because the individuals want to protect their self-worth after a monetary hardship, explained Park.

"A household’s income counts for life satisfaction, but only in a limited way," a World Happiness report from Columbia University said in 2012. "Other things matter more: community trust, mental and physical health, and the quality of governance and rule of law. Raising incomes can raise happiness, especially in poor societies, but fostering cooperation and community can do even more, especially in rich societies that have a low marginal utility of income."

Looking for a foolproof way to become a happier person? Search no further than your local homeless shelter. Helping others in need is an easy way to get a healthy boost of serotonin. Ninety-four percent of people who volunteer say it improves their mood and 78 percent claim it lowers stress.